Here we go again

You cant sit here and tell me I have yet another condition. Another one that I never heard of that has no real treatments?

My best friend has POTS, Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is a chronic condition that causes an abnormally rapid heart rate when standing up or sitting up. So basically, it's when your blood pressure drops and your heart rate rises. In a normal person, when you stand up fast, this can happen for a second, but then it measures back up to even. But with POTS, it doesn't do it right away, if at all.

She begged me to go to the doctor and tell them about the POTS. She also has CFS, so she knows if my symptoms are mirroring hers, it's probably the same thing.

Kick start my heart

My heart has been racing at times when it shouldn't, and I brushed it off as the long COVID (this is the problem when you have so many conditions that are similar, you may miss a new one). I actually bought an oximeter and a blood pressure machine to keep track of these numbers so I can report them. I noticed when I am resting, my heart rate is 150, which is way not normal. So I decided to tell my doctor, except I never did.

Stop being salty

That's when something was finally done. I never did mention it to them, but one day my heart was concerning me, so I did bring it up, and I also mentioned how dizzy I get when I stand. Like it's not normal, and I feel like I'm gonna fall down. And I have a few times. So they reviewed my blood work and saw how I have NO SODIUM at all in my diet, and they asked me why. I said because I thought it was the healthy thing to do to cut out salt. They said yes, but never cold turkey; you NEED some salt. The problem was I wasn't eating it at all, and I hated it. So they had me do a quick test. Typically, you have a tilt table test, but this was just a quick, faster version. They had me sit up and take my pressure, lay down and take my pressure, sit up again and take my pressure, then stand up and take my pressure. I had to do this like 7 times. I actually almost fell over; the nurse had to catch me.

Welp, that was fast

The doctor came back in, took one look at my results and blood work, and said, "Well, you got yourself POTS." I was like, oh, I figured that. My friend said I did; I know all about it, so... and she said to add salt to everything, just a little, to keep everything balanced and to never ever cut salt again, also to live on electrolyte drinks like Liquid IV. All of this will keep your blood pressure normal and heart rate down a tad.

Up to date

Here I am with CFS, POTS, and long COVID, just trying to live my life, which is vastly different than it was 6 years ago. You learn to adapt because you don't have a choice. You could live how you used to, but you'd be in a lot of pain, extremely fatigued, and miserable. And I do not choose that. Once you learn to adapt, you learn how to kinda find joy in things again. Is my life totally different than before? Yes. Can I go out and do things like I used to and have fun? No. Every time I leave the house, from the grocery store to an amusement park, I need to plan my whole day around my medications, and I need food at specific times. And even then, most of the time, my days are cut very short because I just get too tired. Until there is a real treatment, millions of us suffer from these three conditions every day and for the rest of our lives.

To read more about POTS click here